ROBIN SUANG
DECENTRALISATION IS NOT ONLY about provincial governments, it is about giving power back to the villages.
If we can break the hold of the centralised bureaucratic machinery, as in the case of the provincial administrator, decentralisation will help provincial and local level governments move towards making decisions that are in reference to PNG’s Organic Laws on Provincial and Local Governments.
In law, the administrative powers focused on the provincial administrator do not really restrict the specified powers of provincial and local governments.
The powers given to the provincial administrator do not restrict the powers of provincial and Local Level government by the provisions of Organic Law.
The law gives provincial governments and LLGs powers and, according to law, they should act accordingly.
These powers are wide: financial powers, autonomy in providing certain basic services like health and infrastructure, and the ability to undertake certain business ventures that contribute to the national and provincial purse.
In other words, the provincial administrator could delegate certain powers to provincial governments within the provisions of the Organic Law.
This might improve cooperation between the national, provincial and local level governments.
The Organic Laws on Provincial and Local Governments also enable local and provincial governments to make decisions beneficial for the people economically, socially, provincially and nationally.
However, in practice, the ability to plan and implement decentralised activity-requires skills in project design and implementation, which are lacking at provincial and local level. In many provinces, local governments operate poorly even where district administrations score well on their performance.
There is a lack of political strategy to mobilise resources for the construction and maintenance of infrastructure for projects in agricultural development and internal trade.
Because provincial administrators have more influence, they decide where to spend and what the priorities are for spending.
This is a huge hindrance to provincial governments and LLGs because of the lack of merit in the bureaucratic machinery to implement their objectives.
Provincial governments are part of a system, which is a total disaster for this country. It is very destructive of the true philosophy of decentralisation and a grassroots system of government.
Policies of devolution in PNG have ideological, political and bureaucratic dimensions which intersect in a range of complex ways.
Provincial and local governments lack the necessary skills and political and administrative leadership are unstable due to cultural differences, and therefore service delivery is derailed.
The ideological dimensions relate to issues of who has the right to participate in decision-making, at what level and the extent to which people have the confidence and relevant expertise to make decisions which affect lives.
The political dimensions revolve around issues of power concentrated in the apparatus of the provincial administrator, of how power is expressed through policies and is exercised by people occupying particular positions.
The bureaucratic dimensions are linked to issues of resources and resource allocation; of the extent to which administrative arrangements are responsive and sensitive to the wishes of the people; and of how these arrangements permit or inhibit the initiation, implementation, and evaluation of particular development initiatives.
This may not be pertinent to Robin Suang's essay and may need editing or may not be at all suitable. It is pertinent to why decentralisation has failed.
Corruption, misallocation of cash and lack of documentation for expenditures. We have seen them all in Wau.
The provincial auditors produced a 2/3cm thick report on the Wau Bulolo Local Level Government relating to about 2002. About K600,000.00 of expenditure without proper documentation.
Financial records were missing without the benefit of a fire for an excuse. The Town Manager of the time got his superiors to countersign cheques with no documentation.
There was no investigation or any explanation given to the people for the lack of development projects caused by this financial hole. The results were hushed up and did not reach the newspapers.
There is no reason to believe that Wau is alone in the matter of financial shenanigans. Multiply Wau by the number of other Councils and the figure is very great.
There is also no real reason to believe that the Provinces and Departments of the government are immune in these matters.
Ex Kiaps from Taim Bipo can remember the financial inspectors examining the various financial records. A kiap complained to me that it took him hours to find a couple of cents to balance the Asaro Council bank statement.
I worked for Sir Sinake Giregire MP and Minister at the time. I do not remember him appearing to be at all as wealthy as our recent crop of leaders; I kept his only old Land cruiser on the road.
In the early Independence years financial controls were still strong.
In my small trading business which has electronic point of sale, there are 3 stock checkers working constantly to update the stock levels and to highlight any excessive losses; a necessary expense.
For some reason, known only to them, our managers of PNG, aka “Heads of Public Service”, appear to have little effective control of the multi billion expenditures of Papua New Guinea.
Town Managers, Headmasters, Heads of Department and other leaders involved with financial matters freely transfer without any audit of their previous positions.
My suggestion for a partial control is to at least have a corps of minor officers making a monthly check of all cheques and cash disbursements made by any admin officers with financial delegation however it may be described.
This should be done monthly and the officers rotated monthly. This is to ensure that disbursements not documented will be immediately investigated.
There are many Year 12 graduates without a position who could fill these positions. This is not rocket science.
Just as a well run business has finance control at the heart of its activities, so our leaders of PNG should have financial control of all its institutions as a priority.
Money spent on financial control will have a more progressive effect on the affairs of PNG than expenditures on any other area.
Posted by: Tony Flynn | 28 October 2012 at 06:26 PM